The Devil’s Cursed Witch

He didn’t know why his cold heart suddenly ached for her, but he decided to take her with him.

When he was ready to lift that frail body in his arms, only then did the small delicate hand gripping his robe let go. He lifted that body which weighed nothing, not bothered by the ash and dirt that clung to him when he did so.

Once more, he closed his eyes and focused, hoping that this time he could leave this forest.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself inside a lavishly decorated room large enough to be a mansion in itself. He sighed relief as he finally returned and then looked at that charred body.

“Were you the one who summoned me there?”

There was no reply from that unconscious little human. He put it on his canopy bed and covered her with the blanket as almost nothing of her clothes remained intact. He then pulled the rope string next to the bed which was the bell meant to call his servant.

It did not even take a minute for the door to open and a young man with pointed ears and silver hair entered the bedchamber.

“Sire, you are back. Where did you—”

The words that the young servant was about to say were stuck in his throat when he saw something—no, someone lying in the middle of the King’s bed.

“Call a physician, Erlos,” the red-eyed man ordered.

Before the servant could say anything, he heard his master add, “A human one and make sure to get two lady servants as well.”

“A human, sire?” Erlos’ pointed ears twitched as he eyed the charcoal-like body in the middle of the King’s bed once more.

This young elf, Erlos, would normally snoop around to satisfy his curiosity, but seeing his master’s serious face, he did not dare ask anything. He simply bowed and left, hurrying to execute the orders of the King.

It only took minutes for Erlos to return with a young man in white robes clumsily following behind him with a leather satchel filled with bottles. The young man was cowering, his body trembling in fear, which was the complete opposite to the two female palace servants accompanying him.

“Sire, the physician is here,” Erlos announced, gesturing towards the human.

A pair of red eyes scanned that young physician and saw him freeze under his gaze.

Realizing that the man’s attention was on him, the physician almost broke his body bowing like a wooden toy. “Y-Your Majesty, King Draven, you called for this lowly subject?”

Draven nodded and motioned towards his bed as he commanded, “Heal that human.”

Only then did the physician have the chance to look around. He eyed the large canopy bed and realized someone was lying there over the thick white quilt. Even without coming closer, he could see that the person was suffering from heavy injuries. He gulped.

“Y-Your Majesty, your servant has brought the wrong person.  I am not an actual physician but a poison master,” he then looked at the servant with an accusing gaze, “I-I told him but he still dragged me here forcefully.”

Draven glared at Erlos, who only blinked at him with an expression that oozed with innocence, “He is the only human physician around, Sire.”

Draven moved his gaze from his servant back towards that poison master. The human immediately closed his mouth. The look in that fiery pair of red eyes was enough to make that physician shiver in a cold sweat.

To ease the situation, Erlos asked the physician with an awkward smile, “But you know how to heal, right?”

The poison master felt that if he shook his head, something terrible would happen so he could only nod with reluctance. “Yes, but my speciality is poisons…”

Erlos let out an awkward laugh and said, “Then you are a physician.” He then whispered to that young human. “If you want to keep your head on your shoulder, just heal her. That man there won’t hesitate to choose violence.”

The physician gulped as he glanced at the red-eyed man who was still staring at him with a dispassionate gaze, as if thinking how violently he was going to punish him.

“I…I will start with the treatment.”

In order to keep his body intact, the human ‘physician’ went towards the bed and the two lady servants followed him.

Draven looked at Erlos. “Once they finish, let me know,” and stepped out of his bed-chamber.

Once the King left, the long-eared servant went towards the bed. He was curious to know who was the person important enough that his king personally brought and even put on his own bed. He approached and was about to peek over the shoulder of a lady servant when he felt someone pull him back.

“What are you doing, you shameless wolf?!” The other lady servant pushed him away and closed the curtains covering the bed in his face but he managed to see enough before he was kicked out.

‘F-Female? The King brought a female to his bedchamber?! The absolute celibate man this universe could ever have, brought a female to his own chamber?’ Erlos’ eyes lit up with the realization.’